Fraser: 'We didn't think we were an eight seed'

2012 Stanley Cup Final player blogsFraser: 'We didn't think we were an eight seed'

It is kind of surreal. It is kind of crazy. It hasn't really sunk in yet. It is something special. Those were some of my first thoughts after realizing that we won the Stanley Cup.

I was fortunate enough to win the Stanley Cup once before with Chicago, but I didn't play in the Final. This time around, to play a role and play in every game, it really means a lot.

We lost two games in a row, but we thought we had played some good hockey. Not so much in Game 4, but in Game 5 we definitely felt we deserved a better fate. They had two lucky bounces against us. Heading into this game, we had decided we were going to play much in the same way, play hard and score the first goal.

Stanley Cup Final Perspectives

Los Angeles Kings forward Colin Fraser is playing in his second Stanley Cup Final. Fraser, who won the Stanley Cup with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010, is providing NHL.com with a player's perspective on the battle for hockey's Holy Grail.

Our power play really won the game for us. Not only getting one on a major penalty, but to get three and build us a nice comfortable lead was nice. That being said, we didn't sit back.

During the first intermission, we talked a lot about keeping the pedal on the gas and going after it, not sitting back and letting them have any life. I think we did a really good job of that.

It is always in the back of our mind, but the reality started to sink in a little about halfway through the third period. When we scored the fifth goal, it was like, 'That's it!' We started to celebrate on the bench pretty hard. You never want to look too far ahead, but it is always in the back of your mind.

To finish it off the way we did, and with a comfortable lead so it wasn't the nail-biter that hockey fans at home probably had wished for, was really great. We would have taken it any way we could have, though.

I was out on the ice at the end of the game. I was watching the clock and looking down at the play and then looking back up at the clock. After that, it was just crazy.

It is one of those special things that you work your whole life for. It is a lot of hard work by 20, 25 guys. It is just awesome.

Obviously to get to lift the Cup is so special. To get to do it in front of our home fans that have waited so long for this was great. After I lifted the Cup, I was just waiting for my family, and especially my wife, Carli, and my little baby, Calder, to come out on the ice.

Calder is 19 months old. My wife was pregnant with him when we won in Chicago. This time around, to share it with my son now -- not that he'll remember it, but he'll be in all the pictures and videos. It is extra special to me.

Not only that, we have another baby on the way. I told my wife she is getting pregnant every year now, because we seem to win every time she is pregnant.

My parents were here and my wife's parents were here on the ice with me. I actually had more relatives for Game 4 and Game 5, but they could only take off so much work and make so many cross-country trips. It was disappointing that they couldn't be here, but it will all work out in the end.

I'm going to bring the Cup back to Central Alberta this time. I brought it to Surrey, B.C. last time. This time around, I live in Sylvan Lake, which is not too far from Red Deer. That's home for my wife and I. I don't know what we're going to do with it during the day, but we'll have some good stuff set up in Sylvan Lake and Red Deer.

It is funny how it goes. I can't really put it in words right now, but at the beginning of the year we thought we had a good team. We played our best hockey in the last four weeks of the season just to get into the playoffs, and we just rolled it over from there. We finished as an eighth seed, but we didn't think we were an eighth seed.

Heading into Vancouver, we were happy to be playing any team and we felt we could beat any time. Once we won Game 1 in Vancouver, I think we all started to believe this could really happen.